Natasha Romanoff- Avenger of animals
by GeekyChic123
Summary: Everyone thinks Clint is the soft touch for animals, because of his dog Lucky. But Lucky is the only one he's gotten attached to like that. It's Natasha who rescues a whole zoo every other mission.
1. Chapter 1

Clint and Natasha were on a mission in Paris France, they had actually been on a mission here for almost two months. It was one of those annoyingly deep undercover jobs, where they had to live fake lives, lie every second of the day, and live as people they weren't. Right now they were living as a wealthy up and coming couple, who wanted in on a weapons smuggling ring, so that they could make more money. They were almost done here, in fact hopefully after dinner tonight, they would have all the information that they needed and be able to get back to more serious jobs. Not that it hadn't been fun pretending to be wealthy conniving socialites, but now the two of them were more than ready for more serious work.

Now they were walking down a pleasantly uncrowded street that wasn't flooded with tourists, talking under there breaths to finalize details about tonight. "I need to get Samuel alone, and you need to drop the pill into Marie's drink. She doesn't want to talk, the sedative is in a small enough dose that it should loosen her tongue. Then if you have time you should hack into her computer, and use the hard drive I gave you to-" Natasha was interrupted when a small boy stumbled into her path, wiping at his eyes, bottom lip quivering. The two assassins stopped, glanced at each other, looked around to make sure this wasn't a trap, then turned their attention to the boy.

"Hey buddy… You lost?" Clint asked, but the child just stared up at him trying not to cry. Natasha knelt down, and spoke to him in french that Clint hardly understood. They had been here for months now, he still hardly knew more than a few down words of the language. It was too slippery, he couldn't get a hold of it. Natasha nodded at the boy, and looked up at her partner. "He says he lost his dog. I think that we should help him find her."

Clint's shook his head, "Nat, no. We dont have time for this, it could compromise the entire mission. It could waste all of the work we've done here so far." Natasha scowled, and narrowed her eyes at him. "It's a little boy, who lost his dog. We can't just leave him here."

Bartons eyes darted back and forth across the street they were on, taking in every person standing around them, nervously absorbing every detail. "Nat, we can't do this. Not here, not now. Anyone could be watching, it could risk the entire operation." He expected this reasonable statement to knock some sense into his partner, instead Natasha just rolled her eyes. She asked the boy in fluent french, "What does your dog look like? How long ago did you lose her?" Clint barely understood the gist of what she said, and couldn't pick up a single word of the boys anxious rapid babbling reply. But Natasha nodded understandingly, and replied in the same graceful tumbling language.

Meanwhile Clint stood watch, eyeing everyone with suspicion, scanning rooftops and resisting the urge to put a weapon in his hand. Natasha and the pitiful little boy spoke for several minutes, before Natasha looked up at Clint and spoke to him in english. "The dog ran off about ten minutes ago, slipped out of her leash and went after a cat or something. Might have been a rat come to think of it. Come on, she can't have gone far, if we split up we should find her in no time."

Clint scoffed, "Split up? Nat, are you insane? We are- "On vacation." We had plans? People we wanted to see and…. A few we need to avoid?" There was so much Clint wanted to say now, he had to take a second to reformulate his words so if any passerby happened to know english, they wouldn't pick up on the fact they were in the presence of two mercenaries who were in a deep undercover job, trying to get information so they could take down a ring of weapon smugglers. "Natasha…. We don't have time for this. We have been planning this trip for weeks. If we don't stick to the schedule, it could mess everything up." He was trying to sound jovial, but this entire situation was stressing him out.

He had to convince Nat this wasn't a good idea. They had made connections here, people could recognize them and wonder why they were not acting in character. Not to mention they were in Paris, each of them had more than their fair share of enemies here, who would be thrilled to catch them off guard, on their own if they split up. They should just continue maintaining their cover, go to a stupid museum or something and then go to the dinner tonight where they would hopefully gather a few final crucial pieces of intel. The last thing they should be doing was splitting up to help some random kid find his dog. For all they knew this was a trap.

Clint opened his mouth to say all of this and more, but Natasha had that stupid determined look on her face. The one that meant she wanted to do something, and no one could convince her otherwise. Ugh, and now the damn kid was looking up at him with puppy dog eyes, and, was his lip quivering? How was he supposed to resist a crying kid?! The boy babbled some french in a wavering voice, Natasha listened then flatly translated for Clint. "He says the dog's his only friend. He's scared if he doesn't find her soon, she's going to be hit by a car."

Clint bit his lip, and again did a quick glance around to absorb his situation, looked at the kid who was clearly about to start bawling, and then at Natasha who was wearing that determined "I do what I want and you can't tell me otherwise Barton" look on her face.

The archer sighed heavily. "Ten minutes. I will spend ten minutes looking for this damn dog, if we find her or not, we meet back here after that. We need to get ready for that dinner tonight, remember?" She rolled her eyes, "I'm not an idiot Clint. Don't worry, this won't take long. He says the dog is small, has brown hair and her front right leg is white. Her name is Ada. I'll take the kid, since you probably don't know a single word he's saying, we'll meet back here in ten minutes." See clearly saw the worry in her partners eyes, because she leaned forward and quickly kissed him hard on the lips. "I'll be fine, Barton. See you in ten minutes."

And with that she was gone, holding the hand of the boy, jabbering rapidly in the language Clint did not know a word of. Furious at his partner for wandering off, himself for not even trying to convince her to do otherwise. The sooner he found this dog the sooner the mission could get back on track.

Hawkeye dodged through the crowd, eyes darting between the rooftops looking for snipers, and any places on the ground a dog could be hiding. Nervous, all of his senses were on high alert.

So it didn't take long for Clint to realize that he was being followed.

It could have been a coincidence at first, just someone going the same way that he happened to be walking. So he tested the man who was behind him. He purposely took the next turn that he came to, then crossed a street. He did some back tracking, and a few more turns. When he moved to walk down an alley and the man still followed, Clint knew he was in for some kind of fight.

The footsteps behind him were quickly approaching, no one else was in the alley. Just him and the stranger who suddenly was trying to punch him in the head. Clint dropped to the ground, and kicked the other mans legs out from under him, A knife was in his hand, he moved to stab it through the other mans arm, but he moved too quickly and the archers knife hit the ground. He got back on his feet, and was met with a fist colliding with his eye. Clint stumbled back, and stepped to the side before the second fist could make contact.

He then stomped hard on the mans foot, and punched his fist into the mans gut. A knife dug into the mans shoulder, and with a second punch he was down. It didn't take long for Clint to remove the mans weapons and handcuff him. And then he was stuck not sure what to do.

A quick look around showed that he was still alone. "Who are you working for?" Clint asked, the man just glared back at him. Clint asked the same question in stumbling french, and still didn't get a response. "Ok, don't want to talk? Don't worry. I've got a friend with me, she'll help you start spilling the beans. But now, I have to help a kid find his dog. So if you'll excuse me, I'll be leaving you…. Somewhere around here." Clint glanced around, and saw a large dumpster. Well, it would have to do. He pulled the scarf off from around his neck, and used it to gag the other mans mouth.

Maybe he was being paranoid. Maybe a mugger was having a bad day, and had picked the absolute worst person to try and rob. But honestly the chances of that weren't likely, they weren't even by any of the usual tourist traps where pickpocketing was so common. If this was just a huge mistake, Clint was sure Natasha could just pull out one of her cards, and use one of her many bank accounts to soothe any hurt feelings. Or halt any lawsuits.

Clint threw the man over his shoulder, and moved towards the dumpster. He tossed the lid up, and then threw the man in. Luckily some trash bags were there to break his fall. "Ok, this won't take long buddy, don't worry. I'll be back here soon, so don't try anything. My partner will want to talk to you…. And if it turns out you're just some guy who was after my wallet, I'm really sorry about this." He slammed the lid of the dumpster down, and turned back to walk out of the alley.

He had to get to Natasha. She could take care of herself, no doubt about it, but still Clint couldn't help but worry. What if the kid had just been a decoy to distract her? What if right now she was fighting for her life?

Clint was almost back to the place where he and Natasha had parted ways, when he almost tripped over something that got in his way. "What the hell!" Clint blurted out, trying to regain his balance. Something was running around his feet, trying to jump up on him. Something brown, with a white leg.

"Oh my god" Clint muttered to himself, staring down in disbelief at the small dog he had been sent to look for. "Come here you stupid mutt, I had to beat up a possible murderer because of you…" He grabbed the squirming animal, it instantly started trying to lick the archers face. "No! I am mad I had to find you and risk the safety of a monthlong mission for you. You're not going to win me over with your stupid licking, and adorable tail wagging!" The archer hissed under his breathe at the dog, who would not stop moving.

Clint felt pure relief flood through him when he saw Natasha and the still sniffling little boy right where he had left them. The chides face instantly lit up when he saw the dog, "Ada!" He cried out, then grabbed the dog from Clint's arms and began petting her, speaking in rapid french to the excited animal. Natasha was grinning, she looked so happy it almost made up for what Clint had just been through.

"Good job Barton, I knew you could do it. I was kind of worried you would just ditch us and go eat some ice-cream. See? Was that so hard? You did something nice, now we can go get ready for "dinner." Clint turned around, and saw the boy was already gone. Ungrateful little brat.

"Yeah, glad we helped the kid, really glad I made you happy that's super nice. Um…. I kind of met someone you need to meet."

I don't know what I am doing with this, I feel the story has potential but that this chapter was weak. Anything you want to see about Natasha loving animals? I have ideas, but would love suggestions! Best review will get a free french puppy who might run away ;D


	2. Chapter 2

Thank you for anyone who followed or reviewed! Best review, and winner of a random little dog, goes to Cat Girl because I had not even thought about Natasha rescuing wild animals too! Great idea, look for that in a future chapter! I love any and all reviews though guys, so keep them coming please!

_

"No Coulson! I have been in Africa for almost three weeks, chasing down some mewl thief that, turns out, YOU gave us faulty information on. Thanks for that. All that I want to do is get back to Shield, take an actual shower, and eat about three cafeteria dinners at once. Come on, you can't make us go after some stupid computer hacker!" Natasha was arguing into her phone as Clint drove the car they had rented at the airport towards the general direction of the Hellicarrier that was going to pick them up. Natasha was yelling into the phone now.

"I don't care! Get some rookies to do it, we're tired, and we are not your slaves!— Well I don't care if you hide my knife, because I know where your Captain America cards are. And if you hide them somewhere else, you know I'll just find them again anyway. What? That's not fair! You can't do that! But- Phil- Now wait a minute just liste- Hello?" Natasha angrily punched a button on her cellphone and tossed it furiously into her purse. "That's it, we have to pick up this idiot hacker, he's an hour off our route, but it shouldn't take long to bring him in."

Clint was smirking in the drivers seat, "What did he say to you Nat? must have been a pretty big threat if he was willing to back his trading cards against it….." Natasha slumped against the window and closed her eyes. "He said if we didn't pick this jerk up, he was going to recommend to Fury that I go to some mandated therapy. And not work in the field for the next month or so. I swear if he threatens me with something like this again, I am going to make him wish he'd never been born….."

Barton tried not to smile, and failed. Maybe we should take a couple of his cards before we go on a mission next time? You know, hold them as a kind of ransom?" Natasha kept her eyes closed, but lifted one eyebrow. "Hmmm, yeah, that sounds good…. Remind me to do that next time before we get sent off to China, or Russia, or some other place that wants to kill the two of us." She sounded so tired, Clint wished they could just go home and she could get some rest. He reached into the backseat and felt blindly around until his hand closed around what he was looking for. He dropped the blanket into his partners lap.

"Here, it's going to be a bit before we get there. You should get some rest, try and sleep before we have to apprehend this guy." Natasha forced herself to open her eyes, and tried to look more awake. "No! I'm fine Barton, thank you. We should talk about the target…. Make a plan…. Decide who gets to beat him up if he tries to run…."

Clint shook his head, punched the heat up to a higher level, moved the vents to blow the warm air on Natasha. "It's fine, Coulson was yelling so loud I basically heard the whole conversation on this end. This guy hacked into Shield files, and hasn't gotten past the encryption code yet. We just need to bring him in before he does that, and turn him over to people who will convince him to stop snooping around our personal business."

Natasha was trying to stay awake, but now the car was so warm, and if that wasn't enough rain started hitting the ground outside. "Yeah…. But we should talk about his house plan…. And where we should look for any hard drives he has hidden…. And what if he isn't alone? Do we have to take everyone in or just-" Clint reached out, and with one hand began arranging the blanket over his partner.

"Nat, we've done missions like this a thousand times. We both know the drill. Just get some sleep, ok?" For a second her eyes stayed open, struggling not to close, then she sighed, and let herself lean against the door of the car. She was asleep in less than a minute.

When she woke up, instinct caused her to reach for the gun at her side, but as soon as she opened her eyes and saw Bartons face, Natasha relaxed. He was one of the very few people in this world who could wake her up, without fear of having an ear sliced off. Letting go of the gun still in it's holster, Natasha smiled at her partner, trying to clear the sleep from her head. "Hey…. We here?"

Clint smiled, he loved when she was just waking up, before she got all focused and scary and didn't quite have all her wits about her yet. "Yeah, we're about a block away from his house. Coulson called, they're moving the Hellicarrier closer to us, so we won't have to drive three hours to get back." Natasha stretched her arms out in front of her, and twisted her neck to loosen it up. "I guess that's nice. I'm still mad at him though. I mean…. We aren't his slaves, you know? I'm sick of him bossing us around all the time."

Clint reached out and tucked a stray strand of flaming hair behind her hair, and rested his hand against her cheek for a split second. She smiled, and leaned into his hand before pulling away. Clint reached down to the cup holder, and handed her a coffee. "Here, I tried to take the long way to give you a chance to sleep, but even with purposely hitting traffic jams it only took us an hour and a half to get here. Sorry, I wish you could have slept more. But I got you a coffee."

The Black Widow was grinning now, as she took the drink from her partner. "Thanks Barton, I'm surprised you didn't drink it yourself." Clint laughed, "Um, yeah, I might have gotten one for myself too. And a few donuts…. Maybe five donuts."

She gulped down mouthful of coffee, "What? You got donuts without me? not cool Barton." But before she could say anything else, the archer pulled a small paper bag from somewhere, opened it, and handed Natasha a donut with pink frosting and rainbow sprinkles. She laughed, her eyes were glowing. " Aw, you know me so well Barton."

Ten minutes later, the adorable couple sharing donuts and coffee were gone. In their place were two assassins, who were all business, and ready to get the job done. Natasha was loading her glock, and Clint was searching a backpack for a taser. Sadly his bow and arrow were a bit too obvious for this particular mission.

"Ok, so I'll see if he's home, try and get some information before he realizes what's up, and you go around back in case he makes a run for it?" Clint said, Natasha nodded and slipped the Widow's Bites around her wrist. "Yeah, the usual drill. Probably see you in like ten minutes" she smirked, leaving the car.

Clint waited a bit, giving her a chance to get into position. And after ten minutes left the car, and walked up to the house where the mark was. It was a very rundown place, practically falling apart. It reminded him of the various places Clint had grown up before he ran away and joined the circus. Not great memories.

Barton walked up, and knocked on the door. No answer. Knock again. No one home. He knocked one more time, prepared to somehow break into the house- Then someone opened the door. Clint had been expecting a wiry weak guy, the kind of person who spent hours in the basement doing computer hacking stuff. This guy looked like he spent hours in the basement bodybuilding. He was at least a foot taller than Clint, and his biceps were roughly the size of Clint's head.

"Um… Hello sir, I just had to ask you a few questions, about your computer activity?" Clint tried to sound confident, but couldn't help but feel a twinge of worry in the pit of his stomach. He wished he had his bow on him. He wished he hadn't sent Natasha off alone to stop this guy if he ran off.

The other mans face was expressionless. "What about it?" He asked, eyes darting around the yard, as if he knew something bad was coming. Clint's hand reached back for the taser in his pocket, "I just have some questions about some personal files you might have downloaded in the last week?"

Silence for a beat. The other mans eyes were unresponsive, almost glazed over. Then stars of pain were exploding in Clint's right eye, as a fist connected with it. "Damn it-" He blurted out, as he reeled back and tried to regain his balance. When he could see again a few seconds later, the hacker was gone.

"Damn it!" Clint cursed again, puny taser in hand, running around behind the house to where he knew Natasha was. Then he thought about what that man could do to her if she wasn't expecting someone like him to come bolting out of the house. "Damn it!" He snarled one more time, bolting towards where he thought she was as quickly as he could.

Then, he heard a sharp snapping sound from behind the house, instantly followed by an anguished howl. But it wasn't a woman making that sound- it sounded like a man.

Sure enough when Clint got to the back yard, he found the monstrous man curled up in a ball on the ground, cradling his arm. His arm that was gushing blood, and had shiny white bone poking out of it. Natasha was standing over him, eyes narrowed with anger and hands curled into fists. She was standing over him, and for a second Clint thought she was going to punch him again. That wasn't like the Natasha he knew, she didn't hit an unprovoked target when they were already down. But, she was pulling her fist back, as if she was ready to hurt him.

"Romanoff!" Clint cried out, she looked up, and when she saw him some of the anger left her eyes. But she still looked furious, and were her eyes teary? What the hell was going on?"Geez, did you have to break his arm? You got him, let's cuff him and go." Barton said, wanting nothing more than to ask what was wrong but knowing she hated talking personal life in front of- well, anyone.

Natasha ignored the mans broken arm, and forced him into handcuffs. The hacker cried out in pain, but Clint trusted Natasha, she knew what she was doing. It wasn't the first time she'd had to do something like this. It just seemed so- unprovoked this time. "Get him in the car now, and get Coulson on the phone", Natasha ordered turning away from the whimpering man on the ground and towards a small shed Clint had not noticed before now. Before he could ask what the hell was going on, she had entered the small structure and was gone.

_

Clint was holding the phone in his hand, with a confused Coulson on the other end when he entered the shed. "Nat, what the heck is happening?" He demanded- but as soon as he entered the building, he understood Natasha's reaction. Inside of the shed that could hardly be called a building, with no lights or fresh air, was The Black Widow, and a horse. Even thought it hardly looked like one.

It's fur was matted to it's body, it's tail and mane were nothing but a knotted mess of tangles. Clint could practically count the ribs on the animal, and the animal in this waste had to have been piling up for weeks. An almost empty bucket of water was frozen in the corner, and a few scarce handfuls of hay were scattered among the animal waste. Natasha looked like she was about to cry.

"I came around back to scope out the area, and I heard him. I checked it out- And just- How could anyone do something like this? Why do idiots buy horses when they can't take care of them, this is wrong!" She looked like she was about to cry.

Clint lifted the phone back to his ear, and quickly spoke to Coulson. "Hey, yeah I'm still here. I'm going to have to call you back to explain, but we're going to need a horse trailer sent down to the hackers address. Yeah, you probably don't want to know all the details.- I'm not an idiot, of course I won't tell Fury! Ok, talk to you in a few minutes." And then he hung up.

The horse was listless, unresponsive to the new people in his home. Natasha still looked seriously upset though. "Hey, Nat?" Clint said, reaching up and putting a hand on her shoulder. "It's ok, I called Phil. We'll find a new home for the horse, it's going to be fine. We'll save the horse, he's going to be fine."

Natasha looked away from the animal, and Clint saw her eyes really were teary. "It's just, I hate seeing stuff like this. It's like he's just given up. He doesn't have anything to live for. I don't even want to think of how long he's been like this." She looked into Clint's eyes now, "I shouldn't have broken that guys arm. I just, I see things like this and it upsets me. I couldn't think straight, I just saw this, then the mark was right there and I only meant to stop him- I couldn't help myself. I didn't even think of it, I just did it."

Clint reached out to pet the horse, and it slowly opened his eyes, and looked up to the two assassins. "Ok, maybe you could work on anger control Nat. But stuff like this, it makes me mad too. I get it. It's not like you broke his arm for no reason, you did it for this guy!" He said, ruffling the horses mane. "Come on, let's fix this. It will be a little while before Coulson and whatever poor newbies he picks for this job arrive, let's look for some hay to feed this guy."

Natasha almost smiled, "Thanks. Yeah, I'll just follow your lead on that… Unlike you, I know almost nothing about horses farm boy. Just tell me what to do."

They didn't see the horse for a while again after that day. Coulson found a group that used rescue horses with special needs children, and the animal was sent there. Natasha was sent regular emails from the people who ran the group, updating her on the animals condition, and they even sent her photos every so often. If anyone wondered why The Black Widow had random photos of a gray horse taped up in her locker, photos of kids riding the horse captioned "Sarah really loves riding Hawkeye, and Hawkeye sure loves his new home here with us!" They didn't ask about it. Or if they did, they never got an answer about who the horse was or why Natasha cared about it.

This chapter started off so good, then I feel it got so dumb… Oh well whatever, let me know what you think


	3. Chapter 3

I mention a kind of sign language in this chapter, and I am NO expert on that. I do not want to offend anyone who is hard of hearing by portraying hard of hearing people or their sign language in the wrong way. If I wrote something that does not sit well with you, let me know and I will change it:) Please enjoy!

_

He should have known it would be a stupid idea to bring her to a zoo. They were in New York City on a mission, and had some time off for once. And she had chosen what to do LAST time they had free time during a mission, so now it was his turn. Sure, it had been fun chasing down muggers and scaring them to death, but today Clint had wanted to do something just a bit more- normal. And besides, he'd always liked zoos, and seeing all the different animals.

He should have known how much Natasha would hate it.

It had been surprisingly easy to convince her to go though. It didnt mean she hadn't complained about it though. They were on the subway, heading toward the Central Park Zoo, and since they were surrounded by other people (Like, really surrounded. Seriously, New Yorkers and tourists needed to learn the value of personal space.)she was speaking to him with her hands, in their own kind of sign language they had formed after Clint had gone deaf, before Shield had invented his new hearing aids. Now her hands flew swiftly, he almost didn't understand what she was saying.

"I don't like cages. I don't like being in a cage, and I do not like seeing animals who have spent their whole life in one. It doesn't sit well with me." Clint let go of the subway pole he was holding on to and signed back. "Natasha, come on. Don't think like that. The animals are happy, they don't know any different. They've been here their whole lives, they like being in the zoo!" Natasha scoffed. "How would they know that they like being in the zoo, if that's the only place they've ever been?" Clint rolled his eyes. "If you really hate it we'll leave. Just give it a chance first, ok?" Natasha sighed, and signed the word ok. After thinking for a second, Clint signed something that had just occurred to him. "And you can't set any of the animals free, or bring home a tiger or anything. Promise?" Natasha rolled her eyes, and did not sign back for several subway stops. Finally she grudgingly signed back that she promised to behave.

_

At first Clint thought this might actually turn out to be a good day. He sprinted to the ticket counter to buy their admission, and there wasn't even a line. That was a good sign! It was a slightly overcast day, with a tentative promise of rain later on. He doubted the zoo would get very crowded today, that would be good. Natasha was always more at ease when she wasn't being crushed by crowds of strangers who might possibly have been hired to kill her. The sad thing was that wasn't even just her being paranoid, it was more like a very real possibility.

So, yeah, the empty park was a good sign, hopefully it would lead to a good day.

It didn't.

Natasha tried to smile at the kids and the families rushing from one exhibit to the next, but she wasn't used to being around children, they weren't exactly her specialty. She was staring at a huge family, dressed in matching t-shirts, with the kids screaming about wanting to go see tigers and begging for ice cream, the parents trying to chase down a little boy who kept trying to make a run for it, when Clint nudged her. "Hey, want to go see the penguins?" She shrugged. "Whatever, this is your thing, let's just see whatever you want so I can get out of here."

Ok, fine, so for the first hour or so they almost had fun. Clint dragged Natasha around to look at all of the animals, and although she kept talking about small cages and the possibility of breaking a few animals out, she seemed to be having a good time. She even laughed when they went to see the giraffe exhibit, and one of the animals ate lettuce right out of her hand. Clint was feeling pretty good, he had insisted they come here, and she wasn't totally miserable. That counted as a great day in his opinion. Then of course he made the mistake of suggesting they go check out the petting zoo, where for a small extra fee you could feed and play with a few animals.

They were the only two adults in there without kids, but honestly Clint could care less. Natasha actually looked like she was finally having fun, feeding carrots to a rabbit, petting a few goats, and finally not muttering under her breath about how much she hated zoos. The Black Widow was smiling, and trying to get a pot bellied pig to come close enough so she could pet it, when a teen almost knocked her to the ground as he ran past. Of course Natasha caught herself before she fell, but she looked seriously annoyed when she regained her balance. "What the hell? You aren't supposed to be running in here, what if he isn't watching where he's going and trips over one of the animals or something?"

Clint glanced around, hoping a zoo employee would see the running kid, and stop him before Natasha did. "Oh, come on Nat….. He's just a kid having fun!' Natasha scoffed, "Come on. He's not a kid Barton, look at him! He's like 16. Why is he even in here? isn't he a bit old for a petting zoo?"

Hawkeye was about to point out that they were in here, and they weren't kids, but Natasha interrupted him. "Why the heck is he running anyway? Wait, is he…" She didn't have to finish her sentence, because then the boy took off again, and Clint knew this trip to the zoo was NOT going to end well. The young teen was chasing after a tiny little goat, trying to grab it who knows why, laughing like he was having the most fun he'd ever had. The poor goat looked like it was terrified out of its mind. Yeah, this was not going to end well.

"Nat, uh, hey let's go get a snow cone! Come on, some one else will handle that, no need to make a scene." But Natasha was already walking away, "I'm not going to make a scene Clint. I just want to make sure this brat's never going to tease another animal ever again."

With that menacing statement, she was gone, and Clint wondered if he should call Coulson to send in backup before this whole situation blew up in his face.

The teen had actually managed to corner the goat, when Natasha stepped between him and the scared bleating animal. She was smiling sweetly, and had a dopey look in her eyes, that Clint knew from experience almost never led to anything good. "Hey buddy! What are you doing here with this goat?" The kid looked seriously annoyed. He had no idea who he was messing with. "Lady, move it! I caught this goat, go get your own! I'm going to make it wear my hat, so I can record a music video and, like, get a bunch of new subscribers on my page."

Natasha's smile widened her voice was dripping with menacing sweetness. At least she gave the kid a chance to stop before she acted for oncet. "Oh, wow! That sounds like a great idea But maybe you shouldn't do that? I mean, the goat doesn't know what a huge internet celebrity you're going to become with this GREAT, totally original idea of yours. Maybe you could get in trouble for doing this?"

The kid laughed, and tried to push past Natasha to get to the goat who was still cowering behind her. "What are you talking about lady? I'm not getting into any trouble! The only one who cares about the dumb goat is you, what are you going to do, tattle on me?" Then the teen grabbed Natasha's arm to push her aside, and Clint gave up any hope that this incident would end without the bully being traumatized.

It happened in less than a few seconds. Natasha yanked her arm free, whipped the boy around and as the small goat made a run for it, The Black Widow had the boy cornered where the animal had just been. All the sweetness was gone from her voice, and she definitely wasn't smiling. "Listen punk, I've seen you around here all day. And do you know what? You're a bully. Every time I've seen you you've been pushing little kid out of your way, provoking animals, being rude to the staff, this was just the last straw. You're a brat. And maybe you think you're cool now, because you don't follow the rules, and do what you want, but trust me that garbage isn't going to do you any good once you're out in the real world. And seriously, this is what you do with your free time? You come to a petting zoo with a bunch of kids, so you can bully them and feel like a big shot when they're scared of you, and so you can tease animals to make stupid videos? Are you really that stupid?"

The kid looked seriously freaked out. He tried to squirm out of Natasha's grip, but then she held on tighter, and though she had no intention of really hurting him, the kid didn't know that. He stopped resisting. "Look, lady, I'm sorry! I was just having some fun, ok? Didn't you ever do dumb stuff for fun when you were my age?" Natasha narrowed her eyes at him. "Actually no. And if I did, I would have been severely punished." The teenager gulped.

Natasha quickly glanced around to make sure Clint had her back, and that no nosy parents or workers saw what she was doing (And made a mental note about how unsafe the security in a freaking CHILDRENS PETTING ZOO was, honestly, why were people so stupid and trusting?) then released her grip on the boy just a little bit. "You need to stop being such an idiotic biggot. Got that? Quit pushing kids half your size around, stop teasing animals, or you'll regret it."

The kid looked seriously scared now, and Natasha decided to quit it before he started yelling for help or something…. She held up the wallet she had taken from his jacket pocket without his realizing, and handed it to him. "Now, I want you to buy some animal food for all the kids in here, that way they have fun, and the animals get something. Think of it as your way of apologizing. Ok?"

He grabbed his wallet, and looked even more freaked out. "What the heck, are you a con artist? Huh? Next are you going to step my kidney and sell it on the black market?" Natasha smiled in a creepy way, and the kid shut his mouth. "I'm just someone who doesn't like bullies. So maybe you should quit acting like one." And then she backed off, and walked back towards Clint who was partially trying not to smile, and partially wondering why he had EVER thought brining Natasha to a zoo had been a good idea.

She looped her arm through his, and glanced back at the teenager who was already moving to the stand selling goat food and carrots. "Come on Barton, let's go get those snow cones you mentioned, and get out of here before I take those freaking goats home with me."

UGH was this totally stupid? I have writers block and feel like everything is awful -_- Please review -_-


	4. Chapter 4

Ok, I think this is the first reader request I have done? Unless one of you requested the zoo thing I did last chapter?(I double checked and wow, Ilikehats2 has some great suggestions! Thanks!) I have so many stories going on, I forget what is going on with all of them haha ;D Anyway, I kind of changed this idea up a bit, but it is the same basic one that was suggested by ilikehats2 :D Oh, and although most of the events in the chapters of this story happen before our two favorite assassins move into Avengers Tower, I made an exception for this idea ;) Enjoy!

In hindsight Coulson should have known that it was a bad idea to send Natasha Romanoff after a group of animal poachers. Like, a seriously bad idea. They were supposed to just arrest the group, but then Nat had seen the room filled with severed elephant tusks, the cheeta skins being shipped off who knows where, the baby tigers crammed into filthy cages. Honestly Clint was thrilled he had managed to convince her not to kill anyone, and he was retry sure he could convince Fury that Natasha had a good excuse for breaking a half dozen bones, and putting the leader of the poacher group in a body cast.

Now the two of them were returning back to Avenger Tower, and the more Clint spoke the worse Natasha's mood grew.

"Nat, this is idiotic, no way are you going to get away with this. First of all, Tony doesn't like pets in his tower! Second of all, HELLO. You can't hide this from him. He's going to find out, and he's going to get mad. Like, really mad."

Natasha was reaching into the back seat of the car, trying to balance the pile of crates that were stacked so high in the seat that they almost fell over every time the car hit a bump. "Come on. It's not like we haven't hidden something from Stark before, honestly it took the so called genius years to learn we were a couple. And that was only because you were drunk, and stupid, and spilled the beans."

Clint sighed, "For the last time, I wasn't just drunk I was also on those stupid pain killers. Stark knew that, and tricked me! Second of all, it was easy to hide us being a couple. We're smart! We're spies! It was even kind of fun keeping our relationship from him! But this? We can't keep this a secret for long, because we can't control every aspect of this. There are literally almost a dozen variables out of your control, Stark's going to find out about this, and he's going to get mad."

Natasha settled herself back in her seat, and sighed. "Come on, it was the only choice! We had to bring them back for now, we'll talk to Coulson and he'll handle them once he gets back from that job in Mexico. And besides, do you really think I'm scared of Stark getting mad at me? Honestly, we've been good for too long, it's about time we messed with him again."

Well Clint couldn't argue with that. It wasn't like Stark wasn't a gazillionare who could pay for whatever kind of trouble this little stunt Natasha was pulling ended up costing.

Soon enough they arrived at the tower, and then Clint and Nat were each carrying four medium sized crates to the elevator, and eventually to Clint's room. Luckily it was past midnight, and the rest of the team was either asleep, or in Tony's case working in a lab staying awake thanks to copious amounts of coffee.

Clint carefully placed the last crate on the ground, then he and Natasha just stood there wondering what to do next. "How long have they been in there" Barton asked nervously, really not sure what to do next. "Um….. I don't really know. How long was the plane ride? It's been a while. I threw some food in there earlier, but we should really let the poor babies out."

Hawkeye almost scoffed, but managed to control himself before he annoyed his already exhausted partner. "Poor babies? Haha- oh you're serious. Ok, what if we let them out in here tonight, and I can sleep in your room until we can figure this out in the morning?"

Natasha's eyes darted down to the boxes at their feet, and sighed. She really thought they should do a bit more than that, but maybe it wasn't a good idea to get the animals too used to human contact. And she WAS exhausted….. "Ok, fine. I guess you can sleep in my room." She smirked at him as she said this, honestly he probably would have ended up in there anyway- Neither of them particularly enjoyed trying to sleep alone after missions. "So I'll go see if we have any meat I can throw in here for them, and you let them out. Ok?" Before Clint could form an opinion on this, she was gone, and he was stuck wondering how best to let eight wild animals out after they had been locked inside for the entire day.

The next morning Tony was finally ready to go try and sleep. He had been working all night on some fun new toys, that were NOT behaving at the moment. He really wanted to figure out how to fix them, but was not in the mood to risk hurting himself because of a sleep deprived mistake. Not again. So, he was walking towards his room, sipping at a mug of coffee so he would have the energy to make it to his bed before he collapsed.

But then, he was walking by Hakwye's door- and he heard something on the other side. It almost sounded like a very tiny fight was going on….. Wasn't birdbrain off on a mission somewhere? Saving baby pandas or something like that? Not that he was supposed to know about that, but come on, he was Tony Stark. He could hack any information that he wanted to get his hands on, and he had been bored a couple of nights ago. Yeah, Barton was NOT supposed to be back yet….. So who was in his room?

Maybe if Tony was thinking straight, or had not ingested a half dozen pots of coffee in the last five hours he would have thought this true. He would have alerted Rogers or Banner, and at least gotten some kind of back up in case something dangerous was in the room. He could have put his suit on alert. Or at least considered how dangerous it could be entering the room of someone who was BFF's with a super spy who was VERY serious about protecting her privacy, and the privacy of people she cared about…..

But, Tony was more the kind of person to act first and ask question later, even when he wasn't buzzed on caffeine. Besides, what if someone was messing around in Barton's room? Or collecting super secret stuff from in there? Or what if Clint was just in there, and doing something really stupid? Yeah, Tony had to check this out. Besides, if he was here, and was doing something REALLY embarrassing he would have locked the door. Probably.

The door was not locked, and Tony cautiously opened it, wondering for a second if Romanoff was back from the mission, and was playing some kind of elaborate prank on him….. Maybe he was imagining something, but he thought he could hear the sound of tiny feet pattering behind the door, under furniture, in places he couldn't see. But he couldn't see anything. Was he going insane? Why were there boxes on the floor? Oh my gosh, WHAT was that bloody thing on the floor? A dead rat? No, his apartment didn't have rats…. Raw meat? Why on earth would there be a hunk of raw meat in the middle of Barton's room? how long had it been there, did the archer make a habit of leaving creepy food in the middle of the-

Suddenly sharp needles of pain stabbed through Tony's pants leg, and he cried out in shock, and then in fear when he looked down to see a tiny tiger was clinging to his pants leg. 'AAAAAAH, WHAT THE HELL, ROMANOFF! WHAT DID YOU DO?" Stark shouted, sure this was her fault. But then dozens of tiny tigers were chasing him (Ok, it was actually eight in all) and he didn't have time to be mad at her or wonder what on earth was going on, he was just trying to avoid sharp tiny teeth and vicious claws. Did idiots really think these things were cute?!

Tony was stumbling through the tower, waking everyone up with his howls of pain and cursing. "Romanoff, ROMANOFF! DAMN IT, GET OUT HERE AND CALL YOUR CATS OFF! They're eating my leg, OH MY GOSH HELP THEY'RE EATING MY LEG!"

Natasha suddenly came in from the kitchen, hair tousled from sleep, and holding a large bowl of meat she had been getting to feed the tigers breakfast. "Tony, what is wrong with you? Quit teasing them, they're terrified! You can play with them later, let me feed them first!" One of the tigers was somehow climbing up Iron Man's leg, a second was still playfully nipping his pants, and a third was just playing with his slippers. The others smelled the food Nat was holding, and were curiously walking towards her.

Tony was panicking as the baby tiger got closer and closer to his face. "Naaaaaat, oh my gosh, get it off get it OFF! MY FACE, IT'S GOING TO MAUL MY FACE!" Natasha was furious, "I told you, do NOT call me that Stark. This is all your fault! if you hadn't gone snooping in Clint's room this wouldn't be happening right now. Honestly, you're LUCKY this is the worst thing that happened to you. if you'd gone into my room without permission, you'd be dead by now."

As she lectured the genius, he was standing totally still, staring wide eyed at the tiger that was now climbing up his shirt. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I won't go in your rooms again. I won't, never, ever, I promise, now get em off, get this one off, PLEASE. GET THEM OFF!" Tony looked genuinely terrified now, and normally Natasha would have played this out a bit, but honestly she was a little scared that he was going to start throwing tigers across the room. "You are an IDIOT Stark, if you stopped terrifying them maybe they would stop trying to EAT you!" She shouted, putting the bowl gently removing the two tigers playing around his feet and legs, and then carefully peeling the terrified tiny tiger off of Tony's shirt.

As she held the baby animal in her arms, it relaxed into her, and soon she was feeding it some steak, and Tony was gaping at her, still trying to recover from almost being devoured by tiny baby animals. "Did- did that really just happen? Oh gosh, what is wrong with you why do you have TIGERS. IN MY APARTMENT? You- just- how often does this happen?! What else do you have? If I go in your room will I find a lion, or, I don't know, a bear? Oh gosh, have you turned my entire apartment into a freaking zoo of death?"

Natasha gently stroked the tiger in her arms, it almost looked like it was falling asleep. "I don't know, maybe I do. But you won't find out, because as we have already established you are never gong into my room again. And if I thought you had before, i would have let these little guys play with you a bit more. Maybe they'd like to take a nap in your bed?"

Tony's face turned white, and he didn't say another word, just watched nervously as Natasha picked up another tiger, and then the bowl of meat, and left the room, the tigers on the ground following the food she was holding. As soon as she got into the hallway she found Clint, doubled over with silent laughter, cell phone in hand. He picked up two more of the tigers, and Natasha grinned at him. "Did you get all that on your phone?" Clint nodded, still trying not to laugh too loud, unable to speak. Natasha's grin grew more sinister. "Perfect. Let's go make a new video for youtube."

I am in LOVE with this chapter! I had so so much fun writing it, I really need to write more of terrified Tony Stark ;D Thank you for this suggestion Ilikehats2!


	5. Chapter 5

Hey, new chapter! In case I don't make it clear enough Clint was on a mission in England. I mention that earlier in the story, but if you forget that near the end it can be a bit confusing hahaha :D Um, I think this story is set like let's say a couple years before Avengers? Around a time when Clint and Nat were just starting to accept their feelings for one another :D ALWAYS open for suggestions of new chapters, just let me know what you want to see and I will try and write it! Enjoy!

Clint was on his way to Natasha's room in Shield Headquarters, He hadn't seen her in almost two months, and although he was beyond excited to see her again he was also a bit nervous- Because of security reasons he hadn't been told how long this job would before he left. He guessed it would be around week long, based on what Coulson had told him, so that's how long he'd told Nat it would be. They had even agreed to grab dinner together the night after he got back.

Then he'd been on the job for two months, and forbidden to contact her.

He was going to be lucky if she didn't kill him as soon as they were in the same room together. It wasn't like it was Clint's fault, he never lied to his partner if he could help it- Hopefully he would have time to explain that before she started whipping knives at him.

Now he was in front of her room. Clint nervously swiped a hand through his mess of hair, in a futile attempt to tame it, and then readjusted his grip on his backpack. He'd brought Natasha something from this mission, and hoped it would make up for not being able to contact her for two months…. At least it might distract her if she was angry, and give him a chance to escape.

Finally, after a couple minutes of psyching himself up, Clint raised a hand to knock. Before he had a chance to, the door was opened, pulled away from his hand.

Natasha was standing there wearing one of his old shirts, and a pair of yoga pants. She looked more beautiful than he remembered if that was even possible.

She also looked a lot more annoyed than he had feared she would be.

"Do you want to stand there for a few more minutes Barton, or were you just going to sulk around a bit more before retreating back to your room?"

She definitely didn't look happy, but seeing her, hearing her voice made Clint's heart skip a beat.

He smiled, "Well I wasn't sure if you were home, didn't want to knock and get maimed by one of your booby traps." She didn't even bother replying to this, and turned away from him. But she left the door open, he took this as an invitation to come inside. He closed the door behind him.

"Two months. Two, freaking months Barton with no word from you. Two months with Fury and Hill and Sitwell and everyone else telling me your mission was confidential. Two months of not knowing if you were dead or alive. Two months of having to work with the most incompetent agents I have ever seen. Honestly, Shield employs so many idiots I don't know how they are can call themselves an intelligence agency. Where the hell have you been? Why didn't you contact me?"

Natasha flinched as the last words left her mouth, like she hadn't meant to let them escape.

Clint carefully readjusted his grip on the backpack he was holding, and her eyes darted to it, taking in every detail before they resumed glaring at him. "I'm sorry Nat. But seriously, do you think this was my fault? It's not like I wanted to do a solo job for months, and you know I would have contacted you if I could, I wasn't allowed to, geez…."

Natasha rolled her eyes dramatically. "Oh, like I've never been on an undercover mission where I wasn't supposed to contact you but still managed to anyway? You could have at least warned me the mission was not a freaking week long." Clint scoffed. "Well, unlike you I don't have a million random connections in every city that I go to that will send secret messages for me, sorry!"

Natasha's eyes flashed dangerously. "I'm just saying it would have been nice if you had tried to contact me, or let me know you hadn't just dropped off the face of the earth never to be seen again." She turned and sat on the couch in the small room, trying to pretend Clint's leaving hadn't bothered her as much as it clearly did.

And suddenly Clint understood how much he might have upset his partner. Natasha had been abandoned so many times in her life, left behind and forgotten more times than anyone ever should be. Suddenly he was filled with guilt, wondering why he hadn't tried harder to contact her during the job.

"I'm sorry Nat….. It was just a stupid job in England, but I was so deep undercover that if I'd made one mistake that would have been the end of it. Really not my kind of job, they should have sent you on it instead. You probably would have finished it sooner than me, and done it better."

She still looked mad- at herself for being so emotional, or at him for leaving? So Clint continued to talk. "I asked Coulson to tell you how long I'd be gone, but he said it was classified information. And then he didn't let me out of his damn sight the rest of the ride to the job, I couldn't even bribe a newbie to get a message to you. I missed you, and I tried to end this job as soon as I could to get back to you- You have every right to be annoyed at me, I just hope you know I didn't want to leave you for months without warning."

Natasha glanced at him, the angry look in her eyes had faded away, it looked like she was about to say something but then closed her mouth and looked down, away from Clint's face. Then she lifted an eyebrow and stared at what he was holding in his hands, the way he was holding the backpack so carefully. "What's in the bag Barton?" As she spoke relief flooded over Clint, he relaxed visibly now that he was sure his partner didn't hate him. Or at least wasn't about to try and hurt him.

Clint moved his bag, and carefully placed it on the couch, then sat down in front of it before Natasha could snatch it up. Instead of answering her question, he started talking. "It was a pretty easy job, more annoying than anything else. I missed you like crazy, trust me if you had been there we both would have been back a week ago. Plus I was reminded that stakeouts are a heck of a lot more boring if you do them on your own. Or worse if you do them with Coulson yammering in your ear, talking about how he's hoping to go to a trade show next week to find some trading card to finish his Captain America collection."

Still annoyed with him Natasha was smirking, just slightly, trying to pretend she wasn't amused. "What's in the bag?" Again he ignored her question. "I had to do a stake out in the freezing cold, and then I went back to the safe house, realized I'd lost the damn key. So yeah I basically am single handedly responsible for compromising a high profile Shield Safe House, that will be a fun conversation to have with Fury later. I wound up staying in this freaky filthy bedroom someone was renting over their store. Then the next morning I had to complete the mission. That was pretty easy, honestly the entire job was so BORING Nat, I'm trying to think of interesting things that happened on it that I can tell you about, I've got nothing. Worst mission ever."

Natasha laughed and rolled her eyes, it looked like she wanted to say something, but stuck with what appeared to be her line of the night. "What's in the bag?" Grinning gleefully, Clint reached back for the bag, and acted like he was about to hand it over- then carefully set it in his lap, wrapping his arms protectively around it when Natasha tried to grab it from him. He continued to talk. "One thing that happened on this mission, is I realized how much I miss you when you're not around. I don't want to be away from you for that long again. I'm going to talk to Coulson about it tomorrow, see if we can work something out."

At this Natasha was speechless, it almost looked like she was blushing in the dim light of the room. She opened her mouth to speak, but couldn't find the words, then she was tossing her hair, looking away from Clint. He couldn't quite see her face, but he was sure that his partner was smiling.

"And it was weird. Not only did I miss you, but lots of crazy stuff reminded me of you. It rained and it reminded me of that job we had in India, during the monsoon season, remember? And then, I kept hearing these songs that made me think of you, it was the weirdest thing. And I got a bunch of those toffees that you like, I went to this awesome candy store and saw them and I thought of you…." Clint was babbling now, and Natasha was staring at him like she didn't know quite what to think, and the archer must really be jet lagged or not thinking straight because they had an agreement that they didn't say things like this out loud. Not unless they were dying, or scared the other was about to be tortured for information, or one of them was unconscious or in a coma. He was breaking one of their rules.

Clint cleared his throat, feeling embarrassed and tired all of a sudden. Natasha was looking at him again, she reached out and brushed hair out of his face- he really had to get a haircut soon. She traced her thumb over a scar at the edge of his forehead, and he leaned into her touch, closing his eyes appreciating the fact that she was here. She was at his side again.

Natasha leaned in closer, and for a second Clint was sure she was about to kiss him. Then, right before her lips touched his, she whispered "What's in the bag?" Clint pulled back, snapping out of the spell she cast on him so easily, almost without meaning to. He was laughing, and dragged out his story just to annoy her a bit more. "Like I said everything reminded me of you. And then I was walking down this street a couple days ago, it was pretty empty, this gang of kids was playing in front of a house though. At first I thought that they were playing kick the can, or playing with a ball, then I got closer and saw they were playing with- Well-"

Finally Clint reached down to the bag in his lap, and careful unzipped it. He peeked inside, and then slowly pulled out a small handful of sleepy black fur. It blinked a few times, then meowed softly, opening it's eyes to stare at Natasha who was gasping at the baby animal Clint was holding.

"I saw them messing around with her, and thought of you. I know how much you love animals, and thought about how if you had been there you would have saved the cat, probably traumatized the kids for life."

Natasha was holding the cat now, practically squealing over it. She stopped long enough to look at Clint. "Is that what you did Barton? Traumatize a bunch of poor kids so they'll be in therapy for the rest of their lives?" He grinned goofily at her. "Nah, that's more your style. I gave them each ten pounds of Shields money so they'd give up the cat, and told them if I caught them hurting helpless animals again I would send my very scary friend after them to teach them a lesson." Natasha laughed, and hugged the tiny kitten to her face. "Typical of you Barton, too soft hearted to beat up a bunch of kids like you know I would have."

The two of them spent a few minutes just sitting together, passing the meowing purring cat back and forth, not saying much. Eventually Natasha spoke. "So you expect me to take care of a cat Clint? With our crazy schedule? How did you get her here anyway?! Coulson doesn't like animals on his planes! Didn't he fly you back?!"

Clint grinned, and scratched beneath the kitten's chin. "Yeah we went on his hellicarrier, with a few of the other agents he works with. You know that Melinda May, that really cool agent? The one who looks like she could kill you with her bare hands?" Natasha nodded. "Oh, she's awesome, I like her. She almost knocked me to the ground the first time we fought, she's good." Clint nodded, "Yeah, her. She has a bunker on the hellicarrier, travels with Coulson a ton. They work well together I guess. And I told her about my little passenger, and she hid my bag in her room." Natasha was grinning, "Aw, she helped you with your little stowaway? That's so sweet! But seriously how can we keep a cat? Coulson would find it, and it's not like we could leave it locked up with a bowl of food and some newspapers when we go on five month long missions."

Clint had thought of this, and he replied quickly. "Coulson won't find out, it won't be the first thing we've kept from him. And if we leave, we can make the newbie agents take care of her for us. We'll say it's part of their training, and they won't tell Coulson on us because they're all terrified of you." The cat tried to leap off of the couch, and Natasha caught it before it fell. "Ok, but what if we leave it for months, and then it hates us?" Clint snorted. "Nat, it's a cat. It's probably going to hate us anyway, but then we just feed it a lot of food and give it all the attention it wants, and she'll be fine."

Natasha was staring at the meowing squirming animal in her hands, it was trying to squeeze out of The Widow's gentle grip. For a second Clint was worried he'd made a big mistake. He'd overstepped some line, or maybe she hated cats, or what if they brought up bad memories? Great, now he was going to be stuck with a cat, and he didn't even really WANT one….."

But then finally she spoke. "Does she have a name yet?" Clint smiled "Do you want to keep it?" Natasha dodged the question. "Does it have a name yet! I just need to know if you named it something stupid!" Clint laughed, "Well you know once you name something you can't get rid of it, it's like a rule!" Natasha was smirking now. "Is that what you told Fury when you brought me in? Told him that since you'd given me a new name you couldn't get rid of me?" Clint just shrugged. "Maybe….. Might have said something like that."

There was a bit of an awkward silence, Clint cleared his throat. "So, come one! Name the cat! You could give it a Russian name." Natasha shot him a look. "Really? And have you butcher it every time you try and pronounce it? I don't think so." Clint couldn't argue with that. "Maybe something sweet? Kitty? Cutie? It's a black cat, maybe we could name her something like…. Midnight?" Natasha was rolling her eyes now. "Oh gosh, have you ever named a cat before? Have you ever named anything before- Wait, no, I hope you haven't, you suck at this Barton."

Clint was about to suggest more names, when Natasha lifted the cat closer to her face, and suddenly was grinning at it. "Arrow, her name is arrow." Clint stared blankly at her. "Seriously?" Natasha shrugged and stood up with the cat. "What? It suits her….. And has NOTHING to do with you. Don't get a big head about this Hawkeye." Clint shrugged, and tried to stop grinning. Natasha whipped Clint's coat back at him. "Oh my gosh, stop smiling Barton! And go to the store, Arrow needs some food."

Is this chapter horrible? Sorry, I say something like this after every chapter it feels like haha… I guess I am just always worried it stinks and you guys don't like it ha :D Please review!


	6. Chapter 6

A HUGE thank you to my lovely friend Divabucky from tumblr! She does not have a fan fiction account yet, but I am trying to convince her to make one because her stories are AMAZING! She helped me out with this idea, AND gave me an idea for not one but two other chapters! Fun!

_

Natasha Romanoff was in a taxi, headed back to Avengers tower after a simple week long job in Moscow. It had been pretty uneventful. Get in, extract information, take down the mark, get out, get home. Just like a thousand other missions she had done in the past. Only on most missions, she wasn't coming home with a souvenir that wasn't a bullet wound or interesting new scar- On most missions she certainly didn't come home with a souvenir that was alive.

The tiny puppy stirred in her lap, paws twitching in sleep, eyelids fluttering as if it was about to wake up. Natasha hoped the dog would stay asleep- It was extremely active, and once it woke up she wasn't sure she'd be able to control it without making a scene that would result in the grumpy taxi driver upping the price of this cab ride even more. As it was he had already had the nerve to charge her twenty dollars extra to transport the dog- She normally would have argued this, maybe scared him out of cheating her, but honestly Natasha was exhausted and just wanted to get home. She had paid the price without complaint.

Now she was almost back to the Tower, and had no idea what to do with the tiny dog in her lap.

She had found it in an alleyway in Moscow, honestly she'd though it was a rat at first. Natasha had just completed the last phase of her mission, had executed a clean getaway, and was on route back to her pickup point. Then something had darted out from a garbage pile, and started yipping furiously at her. It was tiny, and drenched from the rain, she seriously would have thought it was a rat, only rats didn't bark. Natasha had leapt back just a bit, not wanting to add a dog bite to the list of minor injuries she had already collected that night, then she realized how comically small the dog was. Nothing she couldn't handle.

But she didn't want to just handle it….. She wanted to help it. A closer look at the barking trembling animal revealed it couldn't be very old, it was almost definitely a puppy, a baby. Where was it's owner? Or at least it's mother? Natasha cautiously stepped around the dog, and then investigated the box it had come from. As soon as she saw the dead dog inside she quickly stepped away, not anxious to look any closer. The dog was obviously dead, and was almost definitely the mother of the tiny puppy who was trying to halfheartedly bite her high heels.

She shouldn't have stopped walking. She shouldn't have let herself care about a single stray dog in a city that had thousands, if not more. She should have just focused on getting to the pick up point, and hope the puppy would be able to survive the city on it's own.

But honestly, there was no way that was going to happen. Natasha must have known something like this would happen from the second she realized the dog barking at her was nothing more than a scared little baby.

Grateful she was still wearing the black leather gloves that had been part of tonights outfit, Natasha had swiftly picked up the tiny dog, and after pausing for a second, wondering what to do next, had wrapped it up in the wide scarf she wore around her neck. The puppy had struggled a bit at first, but as Natasha spoke soothing words to it in Russian and carefully stroked the top of it's head, the pup gradually calmed down.

Natasha had absolutely no idea what to do with the dog. So, she had brought it onto the Shield plane with her. She could just ignore the problem for now, and figure out what to do when she got back home.

When she boarded the plane, only a handful of newbie agents were on it, thrilled to have been given a mission that had anything to do with THE Black Widow. Then they had seen the dog, and had nervously told her that animals weren't allowed on the plane. Coulson's rules. Natasha had just lifted an eyebrow at the agent who told her this, and asked if he would like to leave this plane with all his bones unbroken.

It wasn't exactly a threat, but combined with her reputation was more than enough to ensure the anxious newbies were all more than willing to help her out with the dog. For good measure Natasha also handed out some of the money Shield had given her for this job, just to make sure none of them told Coulson she had brought a dog onto his plane. A little bribery never hurt anyone.

The puppy was terrified for most of the plane ride. Refusing to sleep, barking at anyone who was not Natasha, scarfing down bits of the beef jerky that someone had found in a supply kit, and basically being annoying. Natasha just wanted to sleep, get some rest after the mission. Instead she had to spend the entire plane ride babysitting the dog.

Of course now that she was almost home the stupid thing decided to sleep. Dumb girl. Oh, yeah, the dog was a girl. Natasha had checked on the plane, this fact had only been confirmed when the puppy decided to have a little accident when the aircraft was somewhere over the pacific ocean. THAT had been fun to clean up- At least she had noticed and taken care of the problem before one of the other agents noticed and started complaining- or worse decided to tell Coulson.

The taxi pulled up in front of Avengers tower, Natasha thanked the driver, payed him, and was soon standing in front of the building with her small bag from the mission in one hand, the smaller dog in the other. Now what?

Jarvis wouldn't tell on her- Not after she'd had a talk with him, and explained in detail how she could reprogram him if he spied on her or Clint for Stark. But what if one of the Avengers saw she had brought ANOTHER pet home? After the last "incident" Tony had been quite clear that animals were not allowed in his tower. Geez, you bring home 8 baby tigers one time and then you're not allowed to have any pets again….

Natasha carefully tucked the tiny dog into her coat, and entered the tower. it wasn't the best disguise, but it would have to do for now. It wasn't like she was hiding anything from the team, or from Clint. She honestly intended to take the dog to a nice animal shelter tomorrow, it would be like this never happened. If she told Clint she had brought home a dog, he would never let her hear the end of it. Better to hide it for one night. It was just easier if he didn't find out.

The elevator rose swiftly past the floors, and the tiny dog started to stir under the coat. Natasha murmured to it in Russian- She had no idea why she did that. Yes, it was probably the language the dog had a better chance of recognizing, but it wasn't like it understood much of anything humans said. She knew it was dumb, but she couldn't help but talk to the puppy. "Just be quiet for a few more minutes….. If Stark realizes you're here, he is not going to be happy. Just wait until we get to my room before you get all loud and obnoxious again." Amazingly enough the dog stopped moving at these words, and snuggled deeper into the coat.

Natasha exited the elevator out onto her floor, and dropped her bag before collapsing onto the couch. As soon as she sat down the puppy burst from her jacket, and began investigating her new surroundings.

Natasha sighed, and closed her eyes for a minute as she leaned back into the cushions of the couch. "I swear if you make a mess in my apartment I'm sending you back to Russia" She muttered, even though no one was around to hear her and surely the dog didn't understand a word she was saying. After a minute or so of struggling to stay awake, Natasha forced herself to sit upright. The dog was sniffing furiously at a pillow on the couch, Natasha spoke up. "Jarvis? Are you there?" He replied instantly, "For you, always Agent Romanoff. How may I be of help?"

Natasha glanced at the puppy who now seemed to be considering if she was capable of jumping off the couch or not. "Could you tell me what kind of dog you think she is? I have an idea, but I'd like to have a second opinion." The AI was silent for a few seconds. "Am I to guess this dog is to be off the records Agent Romanoff? Or would you like for me to ask Mr. Stark to order some supplies for puppy care?" She sighed and closed her eyes again. "No, Jarvis, the dog is gong to a shelter as soon as possible. I just need to know what breed she is, so I know what to tell whatever shelter I take her to." Well, that wasn't a total lie. Tasha did plan on taking the dog to a shelter, eventually, but honestly right now she was mostly curious about that kind of puppy she had saved.

Jarvis spoke up. "Very well then Agent Romanoff, I shall file this under confidential information to not let Mr. Stark find out about. A file that seems to grow larger with every day that you and your partner live at this tower." Natasha chuckled at this, before Jarvis resumed speaking. "Based on the size of the dog, her black and tan coloring, and the way she refuses to sit still for more than five seconds, I would say she is part of the toy dog community. I would guess she is a chihuhua, but based on where you have just returned from, and the lengthy fur growing around her ears, my best guess is that you have found a Russian Toy Terrier. They are very loyal, playful, and also rather protective. Would you like for me to begin looking up suitable dog names?"

Natasha shook her head, and stopped the puppy before she jumped to the floor. "No, that's fine. She's probably going to go to a kennel tomorrow. Thank you Jarvis." "Not a problem Agent Romanoff. Would you like for me to alert Agent Barton that you have returned from your mission?"

Natasha glanced at the dog, and thought about this. She really wasn't up for Clint complaining about how she had to rescue an animal on every single mission, and insisting she take it somewhere else as soon as possible. Besides, she'd be able to see him tomorrow morning, right now she just wanted to sleep. "No, that's fine Jarvis. I'll let him know that I'm back in the morning. Thank you though."

Then Natasha picked up the dog, and walked out to the rather nice balcony area Stark had built on her floor. It had a small kind of flower garden, room to practice sparring if the weather was nice, and even a patch of grass in one section- She placed the dog down here, waited exhaustedly for it to do it's business, then carried it back inside.

It really seemed to have grown attached to her. From the short walk from the balcony to her room, the puppy almost fell asleep in Natasha's hands. She carefully set it down on a pillow near the top of the bed, and laid down next to it.

Before she knew it Natasha was asleep, with one hand draped protectively over the tiny puppy sharing a pillow with her. As she drifted off to sleep she thought about how she would take the puppy to a shelter tomorrow. The next day at the latest. MAYBE after the weekend, if she couldn't find a decent shelter for it before then.

Earlier that night-

Clint knocked urgently on Bruce's door, forgetting for a second that maybe rapid pounding on a door might not be very calming for a guy who had to keep a giant rage monster in control 24/7. But when Bruce opened the door he looked more annoyed than angry, so, whatever, no harm no foul.

"Clint- What's wrong, what did you do now?" Clint rolled his eyes at this, "Come on Doc, stop thinking all the stupid stuff that happens to me is my fault. I just- I need your advice on something." Bruce furrowed his brow at this. "What? Like, advice on- what exactly?" Clint's eyes darted around the hallway, before he hissed "Medical advice." Banner rolled his eyes at this, and made a move as if to close the door. "Clint, if this is about that rash again I do NOT want to hear about it. If you're that worried about it maybe go to a doctor who was trained to look at stuff like that, I would really much rather not….. Now if you'll excuse me….."

Clint was blushing red when he stopped the door from closing. "What? No! It's not like that! The rash went away a while ago- I mean, most of it did. I think. It's complicated. But this isn't about that, I need your advice because-" Again his eyes darted around the area as if he was worried someone might be listening. Then he looked at Bruce. "See, I found this dog."

Not ten minutes later Bruce was in Clint's room, staring down at something that MIGHT have looked like a dog at some point in it's life. Now it looked like a bag of bones, covered in dirt and was that matted blood? With a gruesomely sad gaping hole where one of it's eyes had once wound was obviously fresh, Bruce didn't really want to think about how that had happened. Still, the animal was wagging it's tail hopefully at the two men- Bruce just had to take a closer look at it, see if he could help. He knelt down next to the animal, and carefully began to examine him.

"Where did you even find him?" Bruce asked Clint, who had crouched down next to the animal and was gently petting it. The archer sighed. I was on a walk, a few blocks from here? I wanted to go to that bakery Tony was raving about, the one with the new muffins or whatever the heck he liked so much he wouldn't shut up about them? Suddenly I see this dog, this stupid dog, run out of nowhere and go right into traffic. This car hit him, didn't even try and stop, the asshole just kept driving. Didn't even look back." Clint's voice was tight with anger as he spoke, meanwhile Bruce had to take a second to calm his own heart rate before the archer continued talking.

"It was like no one even cared about him. A few people acted upset, then they were just like eh what are you gonna do, and kept walking. I went out into the street and grabbed him, I mean, he's practically skin and bones, it wasn't hard to pick him up. Maybe I should have brought him to a vet, but I don't know where one of those would be. I thought, maybe since you're a Dr. you could help?" Clint's voice lifted up hopefully as he said this last part, Bruce continued to carefully examine the dog, wincing when he found what had to be at the least fractured ribs, noted the blood still flowing slowly from the gaping eye socket, and noticed the deep cuts, among other things on the animal.

"Clint, I'm a Dr. not a vet….." Clint's shoulders slumped at this, he started wondering how hard it would be to find a decent vet and transport a dog within the next hour, before it was too late. And the dog was looking up at Bruce, wagging his tail, like he knew he was going to help him…. Bruce had to at least try. He sighed heavily, and stood up. "Ok, let me get my med bag. I'm not promising anything, I should be able to help make him comfortable, and stabilize him when Jarvis finds a REAL vet to come check him out."

A few hours later a vet had been brought in, had done her job, been paid a hefty sum of money to ensure she would not tell Stark, or really anyone about this, and Clint was alone with his new pet. But was it his pet? He couldn't keep a dog. Honestly, that was something stupid Natasha would do (not that SHE was stupid of course, she just had a huge weak spot for animals…..). But Clint was smart enough to know you couldn't keep every animal that you saved. But who else would want this poor guy?

The golden lab had a thick bandage where one of his eyes had been, gauze wrapped firmly around cracked ribs, when he walked again it would surely be with a large limp, one of his paws had almost been crushed to the point of becoming a pulp. No one was going to want this dog. If Clint sent him to a shelter, it would almost definitely be a death sentence.

But, really, he couldn't keep a dog. it was impossible. Tony didn't allow pets in his building. Clint went on too many stupidly long missions to keep a dog. It was probably against Shield protocol or something to own one. If he went soft, and couldn't give up a dog, Nat would NEVER let him live it down. She could never find out about this, no one could. Banner would keep his mouth shut, Clint felt confident he could keep the dog a secret until he healed enough to be adopted by a person with a normal life. So, that's what he would do. He could hide the dog for, what, a couple weeks? By then it would be healthy enough to be adopted by someone. Clint would just ask Coulson to not send him on any long term missions for a while, make sure Natasha didn't find out about this, yeah! Everything would be fine. This could work.

Maybe.

…. Wow this got long fast…. So, I guess it will be a mini multi chapter story within this story? You guys ok with that? Let me know what you think and please review!


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